It’s been four months since we started Ravenous Couple and not much longer that we first discovered the world of blogging. Several blogs got us hooked and planted the seed, but if we were forced to single one out on a police line up, Rasa Malaysia would be the guilty one. Yes, Bee you didn’t know it then but now you do–your blog really inspired us to enthusiastically share our love of Vietnamese cuisine but to also learn about others as well.

So when Bee asked us to write a guest post on Bo luc lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef), we were surprised and flattered–you mean us newbies? But we gladly accepted as it’s one of our favorite dishes.

Not completely lost in translation, the “luc lac” is merely a description for the “shaking” or tossing of the beef back and forth in the wok after it’s quickly seared. It’s a widely popular Vietnamese dish and as such, has many variations on how it’s served. Some restaurants serve it with sauteed onions, lettuce, and rice (white or tomato paste rice) while others may present it more like a steak salad served on a bed of watercress and tomatoes, topped with pickled onions. Dipping sauces might vary from a lime/salt/pepper sauce to a soy chili sauce…

Regardless of how you serve bo luc lac, it’s an easy and fantastic dish to make for a dinner for two or a party of ten. You can use any cut of steak you like such as filet or ribeye, but we prefer sirloin.

Hi Sylvia: Thick soy sauce is sweeter because it’s typically has molasses/sugar to add color and heighten flavor. So you may already have it. Kosher salt has larger grains and doesn’t dissolve as fast and tends to be less salty then regular table salt–it’s widely available in the salt section. You can certainly use table salt if you like. Thank you for the questions and let us know how it goes!

This is a recipe that was given to me nearly 15 years ago by a cook in a Vietnamese bar/lounge here in Hawaii. His name was Duc and he became a good friend. And later the “shaking beef” phenomena emerged. Seems like one in the same, it really is a traditional Vietnamese dish.

I was very surprised when reading some Vietnamese recipes in your blog, they are exactly the same with how we cook in our country. I was surprised because they were introduced by a foreigner, thank you for this. I’ve also tried some of the other recipes from China and Thailand. All of them were really tasty. Thanks a lot. Your site is really really wonderful :)

About the name of this dish, many people explain that “luc lac” is the description of how beefs move to and from in the pan, so they translate the word into English as “shaking”. However, they maybe don’t know that the word “luc lac” has another meaning, which is “cubes”. This is to describe the shape of the beefs, which makes this dish different from the very popular Vietnamese stir fried beef. And I think the latter is more reasonable because in Vietnamese, “luc lac” is not a verb, it’s quite ridiculous to understand it as “shaking” or “shaky”.

Trang – thanks for your comment, this recipe is actually from a Ravenous Couple, they are Vietnamese, but other Viet recipes I made them on my own. I think I have pretty much have the fundamentals down for Viet cuisine. :)

Hi Trang and Betke: Thanks for your thoughtful insights regarding bo luc lac… literal translations of Vietnamese words can be problematic but for better or for worse shaking beef is one of the most common English name that this dish goes by and so that’s why used it.

“Luc Lac” in Vietnamese is both a verb and a noun meaning to shake or swing as a verb and a dice as a noun. Trang is right about this. Lúc lắc as a noun is called “xí ngầu” in South Vietnam but Northern Vietnamese calls lúc lắc or súc sắc.

YUM! I’m making this dish tonight along with tomato paste fried rice! I don’t have watercrest but will use baby spinach instead!
I love your website and the photos are just AMAZING!! I must have spent 2 hours lastnight reading your recipes. Keep up the great cooking!!

My mom had asked me to cook her some beef that she defrosted, so I asked her what type of flavor she wanted American or Asian? & of course she said Asian so I tried to think of something I could whip up, with no luck I resorted to the internet lol! I made this last night and my parents loved it! Thanks for sharing, it was dee-licious. I actually ran out of thick soy and sesame oil so I just used olive oil and “stir fry” sauce. I can’t wait to try it this way though!

Thank you Rasa Malaysia for posting this and to Ravenous Couple for sharing your delicious Bo Luc Lac recipe! It’s one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, having grown up as a Vietnamese American in San Jose and while living in Los Angeles temporarily – two cities with thriving Vietnamese communities. I really appreciate how your blogs make traditional Asian cuisine so accessible to people. It’s nostalgic and empowering for me to connect to my culture and family history by being able to replicate these dishes. I look forward to reading more of both of your blogs and trying out the recipes, particularly the Vietnamese dishes.

I can’t forget the smile on a vietnamese colleague’s face when I mention “bo luc lac”, she was like “heey, you know asian food.”. This dish is extremely tasty, I tried this dish for the first time in Sydney australia. It was such a delicious treat. The marinated beef was like comfort food, but the vegetables was also so fresh, tasty and healthy.

I’m nearly hooked on vietnamese food. But it’s just so difficult to express how rasamalaysia, whiteonricecouple, martin yan, Luke nguyen and asians friends have inspired me even more to cook asian treats. Vietnamese cuisine is just extremely exciting ranging from the french style Banh mi to Banh Xeo and Bo luc lac. Vietnam certainly is a mystery of it’s own in the world of cuisine.

thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipe! i just love this shaking beef :) i didnt had red onion when i made it, so i just used white onion but still it was so nice! this is definitely a keeper!

Thank you for the wonderful recipe! The flavors are JUST like my moms! If I tried to ask her fora recipe, she would say “a little of this and a little of that” which makes it impossible to replicate! Thank goodness for Vietnamese bloggers! Bless you!

Hi Rasa Malaysia. First of all thanks for your recipes. I live in Argentina and I love to try new dishes. I cook a lot of things just right from your page. The recipes are very well explained and clear. My only recommendation it’s to put the servings along the recipe. I want to cook Bo Luc Lac tomorrow for three people. It’s ok or I should use more amount of ingredients? Thank you very much Rasa and keep this way :D

Hi! I am making this tonight and I do not understand what you do with the dipping sauce…there is such a small amount of ingredients (jc of one lime, 1/2 ts slt, 1/2 ts cracked pepper) do you sprinkle it over the top? thanks.

I made this dish twice using your recipe and I’ve concluded with my family that the taste is nowhere near close to the viet restaurants in NYC Chinatown. Granted each restaurant makes it differently but it seems to be missing a certain ingredient of something. The recipe is still good and it tastes great but it’s not the same.

Made this tonight and the hubby and I absolutley loved it! Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe… all the flavours came together perfectly! And as well as that it was easy to make which is a huge plus for me! Thanks RC and Bee!

First of all, I LOVE Rasa Malaysia – my cook book is full of recipes printed from this site.

I cooked this for the husband last night and he RAVED about it! He couldn’t get over the presentation, and then the flavours and the interaction between the beef and salad – this has gone straight onto our dinner party repertoire! Thank you so much to Ravenous Couple for sharing this recipe and thank you for posting it!

In the past 2 weeks that I’ve known of this recipe, I’ve used it countless times. The marinade is wonderful and I’ve used it for so many other “dishes.” Thanks for the recipe and thanks to Hong and Kim!